1. The pool of corporate venture capital is widening and will widen further

Automotive and chemicals VCs are being joined by ICT (e.g. Samsung) and hoover / robotics companies (Dyson). Robotics investors will increasingly look along the value chain to batteries.

2. Expect more acquisitions

Breakthroughs in batteries innovation will enable business victories in electric vehicles, drones, robotics and other industries. This makes batteries a good sector for VCs because the appetite for acquisition (to steal a competitive advantage) is strong. The sale of Boulder Ionics could be the first in a flurry of deals.

The automotive industry will compete on EV range and therefore will invest in and acquire battery technology. The growth of wearables, robotics, flexible display and internet of things markets will also increase investment in and demand for batteries innovation, particularly when batteries can be made flexible and thin (e.g. Imprint).

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Published by Tom Whitehouse

Tom Whitehouse, LEIF’s founder and chairman, has advised environmental technology businesses on capital raising and communications for the last ten years. He has raised over $55m for clients since 2008 and provided investor communications support to on over $2bn of capital-raisings.
Before working in the environmental technology sector, Tom was a foreign correspondent. From 1997-1999 he was Moscow correspondent for The Guardian and from 1991-1997 he was a reporter for the BBC World Service, based in Prague and Moscow. He is Contributing Editor at Global Corporate Venturing (GCV), for whom he writes the Clean Deal, a monthly column on environmental and advanced materials venture investing. Tom has a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.
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